Scarificator for surgical use.



No. 693,554. Patented Feb. l8, I902.

|.. a. LANGSTAFF.

SGARIFICATOR FUR SURGICAL USE.

(Application filed June 11, 1901.\

(No Model.)

fizltnewa 60*.- ,Zizvenibz UNTTnn STATES ATENT @rmcn.

LEWIS G. LANGSTAFF, OF BROOKLYN, NE\V YORK.

SCARIFICATOR FOR SURGICAL USE.

'EEECIFICATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 693,554, dated February 18, 1902.

Application filed June 11,1901. Serial No. 64,112. (No model.)

To CLZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS G. LANGSTAFF, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, in the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Scarificators for Surgical Use, of which the following is a specification.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a simple and very convenient instrument for scarifying and thus preparing the skin for the application of the virus in the operation of vaccination. Such instrument may also be used for scarifying the skin in other operations. The said instrument consists of a ring having a substantially fiat face to press upon the skin, a handle projecting laterally from said ring, and a tongue projecting across or partly across said ring from one side thereof and provided with means for adjustably holding one or more needles with their points as nearly as desirable in the same plane with the face of said ring.

Figure l in the accompanying drawings is a side View of a scarificator embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a plan of the same.

a designates the ring, having the handle I) projecting laterally therefrom and the tongue or holder 0 projecting therefrom partly across it. In this example of my invention the instrument consists of a thin flat piece of any suitable material, as metal, bent to form the three parts-via, a terminal handle I) with the flat surface in a vertical position, a curved ring a with the flat surface in a horizontal position, and the terminal tongue-like portion c,constituting the needle-holder, projecting inwardly across the loop a in line with the handle. The parts of the loop being united at e in any suitable manner, as by soldering, constitutes it into a ring. The said tonguelike portion is slit lengthwise, as shown in Fig. 1, to divide it into three strips, which are crimped or corrugated in alternate directions in such a way, as shown in Fig. 2, that one or more needles (Z, which may be ordinary sewing-needles, inserted between their alteruatin g corrugations, may be held firmly therein perpendicular to the face of the ring by the elastic lateral pressure of the strip, yet adjusted lengthwise therein to bring their points as nearly flush as may be desired with the under face of the ring.

In the use of the instrument its ring is laid upon the surface to be scarified, and by its rapid side to-side movement-s while the operator by means of the handle presses the face of the ring with varying pressure on the part to be operated upon the skin of said part is caused to be scarified by the points of the needles.

That I claim as my invention is- 1. A scarificator consisting of a ring having a handle projecting laterally from it and an elastic needle-holder projecting across it from one side thereof, and one or more needles longitudinally adjustable in said holder, substantially as herein described.

2. A scarificator consisting of a substan tially flat ring having a handle projecting laterally from it and having projecting across it from one side thereof a tongue which constitutes a needle-holder for holding needles in fixed positions approximately perpendicu lar to the face of the ring itself, substantially as herein described.

3. A scarificator consisting of a strip bent to form three parts, viz: a ring, a terminal handle projecting outwardly from said ring and a terminal tonguewhich projects'inwardly across said ring and is slit and corrugated to form a needle-holder, substantially as herein described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two witnesses, this 7th day of June, 1901.

LElVIS G. LANGSTAFF.

Witnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, HENRY THInMn. 

